New Delhi : The AYUSH Ministry is mulling to rope in Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and sports star Virat Kohli for the mega event – International Yoga Day on June 11.
“We have made many celebrities brand ambassadors for publicity of the event. We are also trying to include them in this. In that, there are names like Amitabh Bachchan, Shilpa Shetty and Virat Kohli”, Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik said.
He said that preparations are going on ‘full swing’ for the International Yoga Day and the main programme will be held at Rajpath.
“We are expecting around 35,000-40,000 people to be present there. Everybody will perform yoga. PM Narendra Modi will also grace the occasion and present his views. The programme will conducted between 7 am and 7.35 am in the entire country simultaneously”, he said.
With close to 40,000 people expected to take part in the mega event, the AYUSH Ministry is also trying to register the event into the Guinness Book of World Records. “Our Ministry is also trying to register the mega event in the Guinness Book of World Records”, Naik said.
He said that the International Yoga Day has got the support of 177 countries. Free yoga camps are being organised in 651 districts while in Delhi 100 such camps have been organised. The UN General Assembly had in December last year adopted an India-led resolution, supported by over 175 UN member-states, declaring June 21 as ‘International Day of Yoga’, recognising that “Yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being”.
Naik said the Ministry is also organising an international conference on yoga for holistic health and the theme includes traditional basis of yoga, yoga in disease prevention and health promotion, therapeutic potentials of yoga, yoga for global peace, yoga and its applications and living traditions of yoga.
Close to 11 lakh NCC cadets are expected to perform common yoga protocol across the country on ‘International Yoga Day’ on June 21 while 5,000 members of the armed police forces will participate at the mega event being organised at Rajpath.
The event will take place at Rajpath on June 21 from 7 am to 7.35 am and VIPs, officials, diplomats, students and others are expected to participate in it. External Affairs Ministry officials had earlier said that that Yoga Day will be observed on June 21 in over 250 cities in 190 countries across the world.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, along with Naik, will be launching a special portal for the ‘International Yoga Day’ on June 9. Earlier during the event, Naik said that to promote research facilities in this field, the work for establishment of six central research facilities in different parts of the country is going on at a steady pace.
“In Karnataka and Haryana, the first leg for establishing them has been completed. In Odisha, land has been alloted for it. Rajasthan, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh have also sent proposal for providing land of Central Yoga and Naturopathy Research and Treatment Centre”, he said.
